This invention relates to the field of flexible packaging and more particularly to paired saddle bags, each bag having an aperture formed in one side thereof to facilitate removal of a bag from a stack and to the method of forming such bags.
In flexible packaging there are different types of bags formed. There are side weld bags formed by joining ribbonlike films together and sealing the seams. There are bottom weld bags formed by extruding a tubular film and forming a seam along the bottom of the bag. In bottom weld bags the film in flat two-ply form is sealed along one line at a first location to form the bottom of one bag; and perforated or cut along a second line parallel to the first line, to form the top of the next bag.
There are bags formed in pairs with their upper edges being joined. These paired bags are hung on a support in saddle-like fashion. These bags whether formed as bottom-weld, side-gussetted bags or side-weld bags, are stacked and block sealed for ease of handling. Anywhere from twenty-five (25) to fifty (50) bags may be stacked and sealed at the same time or the bags may be stacked and sealed sequentially to form a bundle of block sealed bags. The bags are typically sealed one to the other along an edge, usually their upper edges. Below these sealed upper edges are the perforated lines which allows an individual bag to be removed from the bundle. Generally, the seal will be from a fraction of an inch to an inch or more in width. One or more holes may be punched through the block seal in order that the bags may be carried by a dispenser.
When a bag is removed from a block it has a tendency to cling to the bag it contacts such that the removal of one bag from another is hindered. In some uses of such bags, such as in deli counters, checkout registers etc., there is time wasted in separating the bags and subsequently opening the bags which results in frustration and on occasion the bags are discarded because they do not open easily.
These difficulties have been overcome by the inventions of the inventor with the bags and method of making the bags as set forth in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,559,119 and my copending application Ser. No. 879,899 filed June 30, 1986, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties into this disclosure.
In this disclosure the inventive aspects of those disclosures are applied in a unique way to block-sealed paired bags. Each bag may be removed simply by passing a finger through an opening, grabbing a side and pulling outwardly. The user of the bags would necessarily apply tension to the bag and it would separate from the other bags to which it is joined at a perforated line as well as separate one side of the bag from the other; i.e. open the bag.
The present invention is in one aspect an improvement of the method of making the side-gussetted, bottom-weld bags such as described in my aforementioned patent or application. More particularly the present invention embodies a method of forming paired bags and the bags formed by such method. One side of each of said bags has an opening formed therein. The use of the term "opening" as used in this disclosure is intended to mean an opening in one ply of the bag such as a circle, square, ellipse or the like formed below the upper edge of the side, or that the opening intersects the upper edge of one side of the bag and/or the opening extends from one side to the other side of the bag. First and second paired bags are joined to one another at their upper edges along a common release line. Each bag has an outer wall and a facing wall. An opening is formed in the outer walls and the release line intersects the aperature. A retention portion is integrally formed at the release line. The retention portion releasably joins a plurality of paried bags in a stacked configuration.